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National Year of Reading Star Ideas

Star Ideas are taken from our publication Fully Booked by Eileen Armstrong.

April: Read All About It

Read anything and everything, anywhere and everywhere.

Activities for April might include:

Start a words on the wall campaign; posting extracts of books in strategic places around the school; canteen, toilet doors, main entrances
Start a "stories in the news" board outside the library and invite staff and students to choose the most important or attention-grabbing stories of the day
Make screensavers of booktasters to attract attention to new books in the library
Catch staff and students reading unusual things in unusual places on camera and display poster versions prominently around the school. Try it out and about in the community too (with permission!) to include people reading bus timetables, txt msgs, letters, shopping lists in the supermarket, restaurant menus, notices etc, catch bosses with minutes in a meeting, at the doctor's...
Create short snappy video adverts of staff and students talking about what they're reading or why they read
Start a library weblog and encourage students to contribute
Encourage your reading group to use the internet to find out what others are reading and enjoying ( try www.storiesfromtheweb.co.uk for primary and www.spinebreakers.co.uk for secondary) then add their own ideas
Start a reading group which reads anything BUT fiction...
Create reading bags containing a magazine, book, game, website etc around genres, interests or themes for resistant readers or encourage students to create these for younger students in feeder schools
Run breakfast clubs with lots of newspapers available
Design a newspaper front page reporting on events/characters in your favourite book
Organise a trip to a local newspaper office
Carry out a survey of staff/student favourite newspapers and magazines or websites. Display the results or announce them in assembly

May: Mind and Body

Celebrate the links between reading and health in May

Activities for May might include:

Use the resources on the National Literacy Trust Sport webpages to spotlight premier league stars' reading choices. There are also downloadable posters of cricket stars reading.
Divide year groups into teams to see who can read the most this month
Work with the PE teachers to organize lunchtime story readings in the gym
Produce stories for special situations lists or book collections for the school counsellor to promote
Concentrate on "issues" fiction in this month's reading groups meetings and create reading trails for problem situations; drugs, teen pregnancy, abuse, bullying, eating disorders, addiction, divorce etc.
Create a healthy menu for a balanced reading diet - poems for starters, a classic for the main...
Create a recipe for a good read - plot, character etc. Discuss the health benefits of your recipe.
Run a reading promotion around cookery books for children
Organize a "this house believes nothing is too sensitive an issue to be tackled in fiction" debate
Devise dilemmas and problem page letters with replies for book characters or stage Jeremy Kyle style shows for characters with problems to solve
Take the temperature of a book - mapping your emotions in a diary as you read
Appoint student book doctors to prescribe books to suit your mood

June: Reading Escapes

The holiday season is upon us and the hot holiday reads will be top of the lists. Reading Escapes is a chance to focus on holiday reading or how reading helps you escape into different worlds.

Activities for June might include:

Choose books to take on a desert island - involve staff and students and create a giant beach display in the foyer or library
Put deckchairs in the school foyer and creating a comfy reading space
Run a competition to discover the most unusual place readers have read a book - run this over the summer holidays and display the photographic results in September!
Encourage students to send postcards of reading suggestions to the year group below and publish the suggestions for parents on the school website
Organize a reading passport scheme for students to read around the world of books
Choose reading recommendations for key members of staff
Compile top 10 bestseller charts for different countries around the world
Display reading recommendations on giant footprints around the school
Display labelled staff book choices in a suitcase
Feature stories in translation
Run a quiz to guess the book title in translation or identify the foreign cover

July: Rhythm and Rhyme

Celebrate poetry and lyrics from Shakespeare sonnets to pop songs.

Activities for July might include:

Storm classrooms unannounced with drama students to recite a poem
Create podcasts of staff and students' favourite poems
Make photo montages of items mentioned in poems and song lyrics
Invite child care students to join in rhyme time sessions at local public libraries
Run poetry lunches in the library with staff performing their favourite poems
Summarize favourite stories in a short poem
Create a library anthology of readers' favourite poems and songs
Play music in the library at lunchtimes
Create a poetry juke box on the library internet featuring live performances and interviews with poets
Run a performance poetry X Factor competition in the library for staff and students
Create a soundtrack for your favourite book, justifying the inclusion of every track
Create poetry trails with topical poems displayed in every department
Run a Top of the Poems poll in school to find your favourites by year group. Display the results in the foyer or announce in assembly
Recite a rhyme for a school (or book-based) charity
Plant a Poetree in the school foyer and watch it sprout leaf poems
Put up poetry washing lines and hang clothes-shaped poems

August: Read the Game

With the London Olympics on their way and the start of the football season in August this is the perfect time to build links between sports and reading.

Activities for August might include:

Use the resources on the National Literacy Trust Sport webpages to spotlight premier league stars' reading choices. Display the football/cricket stars posters.
Divide year groups into teams to see who can read the most this month
Challenge students to read from different genre divisions; complete scorecards, nominate characters for a dream team and draw up league tables of winning readers with Player of the Month prizes
Recommend reads from and based in featured countries. Create a reading passport and large map in the foyer with flags to mark individual readers' progress
Offer bronze, silver and gold medals to individual readers and tutor groups reading most this month
Contact local sports celebrities to find out their favourite reads
Reward resistant readers for their reading progress with a trip to a local sports centre or sportsground
Conduct a reading survey at your local sports centre
Subscribe to a range of sports magazines

September: You are what you read

Reading is a great way to celebrate and explore cultural, personal and local identities.

Activities for September might include:

Display who's reading what on every teacher's classroom and office door in the school, including senior management
Conduct a reading survey in the local shopping centre or public library to find out what or how often people read and why
Create collages of favourite things that make up you - including things you read
Map your life so far through your reading material
Discuss secret reading habits; where, when, how long for, what, why… try this as a spin the bottle game at a reading group
Survey students about magazines to buy regularly for the library - what new titles do they think would be popular and why?
Try on other lives for size; try who am I? guessing games to guess the book character and hotseating
Choose books to match your star sign/personality
Run a Book Brother debate with online voting; which book characters should go in the Book Brother house and what should the eviction order be?
Organize speed dating events for recommending books
Recommend good reads for a best friend/worst enemy/celebrity
Bookpushing; hold a regular book slot in assembly with staff and students presenting their favourite current read
Join the reading champions/angels scheme

October: Word of mouth

Celebrate storytelling, reading out loud, reading together and live literature.

Activities for October might include:

Invite local bookstore staff into school to promote favourite or new reads
Create podcasts of favourite extracts from books, getting staff involved as well as students
Share an author visit with neighbouring schools
Create vox pops - short snappy reading and book ads by staff and students broadcast over the school network or in assemblies
Encourage every teacher to start every lesson with a two minute who's reading what slot
Read aloud to a class for twenty minutes every day
Encourage senior management to share reading suggestions at the start or end of every school meeting
Hold a library sleepover with storytelling all night
Hold an evening bring-a-teddy storytime with cocoa
Make links with local nurseries to share picture books
Create a picture book for children at a local nursery and read it to them
Have students' book reviews published in the local paper or displayed in the local bookstore
Create bookbelly bands and shelftalkers featuring students and staff recommendations
Create if you like this, you'll love... bookmarks to encourage further reading
Start an online discussion or videoconference with a reading group in another school - locally, nationally or internationally
Suggest a book of the day - on screensavers, homepages, posters or in assemblies
Link author interviews and live readings to the library website
Design library postcards for sending reading recommendations
Join in a local book award to compare your views with other readers or take part in the Kids' Lit Quiz to find out what's new
Set up your own in-school version of Bookcrossing

November: Screen Reads

Explore the diversity of reading and writing; scripts, television and films.

Activities for November might include:

Make a photostory of your favourite book
Imagine your favourite book into a film - cast, location, advertising, music...
Script your favourite scenes from a book and act them out or use freezeframing
Organize a trip to the cinema to see the adaptation of a book
Hold a "this house believes the book is always better than the film" debate
Write reviews of films for the local or school newspaper
Start a reading group to focus on books of the films and films of the books
Expand your library DVD collection to include films of books
Hold after-school "film of books" showings for staff with refreshments and copies of the book for sale

December: Write the Future

What one person writes, others read, and technology is bringing reading and writing closer together. The year ends with a celebration of all forms of writing.

Activities for December might include:

Set up a creative writing group
Explore fanfiction sites with a reading group
Debate the future of books in a digital society
Download first chapters from publishers' websites and predict what will happen next
Create podcasts of opening chapters from books for the library website
Create an anthology of original writing inspired by students' reading
Expand your selection of books on CD or for download
Write reviews of favourite books in txt spk and display the comments on the bookcovers
Set up a reading club bookblog